I've received word from Johns Hopkins where our friend Andy Stephenson, who has been tireless for years in his efforts to fight Election Fraud in this country, has just completed 7.5 hours of surgery.

He has come through the surgery successfully and his tumor was removed. He is currently in Recovery and on his way to Intensive Care shortly.

I have been asked to keep further details of the surgery and his further prognosis private as of now. It has been requested, however, that I pass along the news above for those who are concerned about him, and, as well, to ask everyone to say their prayers for Andy at this time.

It was a culinary rebuke that echoed around the world, heightening the sense of tension between Washington and Paris in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. But now the US politician who led the campaign to change the name of french fries to "freedom fries" has turned against the war.

Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina who was also the brains behind french toast becoming freedom toast in Capitol Hill restaurants, told a local newspaper the US went to war "with no justification".
...
Asked by a reporter for the North Carolina News and Observer about the name-change campaign - an idea Mr Jones said at the time came to him by a combination of God's hand and a constituent's request - he replied: "I wish it had never happened."

Although he voted for the war, he has since become one of its most vociferous opponents on Capitol Hill, where the hallway outside his office is lined with photographs of the "faces of the fallen".

"If we were given misinformation intentionally by people in this administration, to commit the authority to send boys, and in some instances girls, to go into Iraq, that is wrong," he told the newspaper. "Congress must be told the truth."

Fancy that. Even once pro-war Republicans are turning against this bogus war and beginning to face the facts.

Various obligations have made us slow on both the draw and analysis of this one, so we'll let the always excellent work of the Columbus Free Press' mighty Bob Fritakis speak for itself.

Suffice to say the infamous Hocking Country "Triad Whistleblower" is being fired for her patriotic efforts, Blackwell has taken a blow in his attempt to punish those who would challenge his Election Reign Supreme in the Buckeye State, and there is no such thing as "Bi-Partisan Boards of Election" in Ohio. Just another myth employeed by cheaters willing to shamefully disenfranchise American Citizens in order to hang desperately onto power.

While we wish to see Election Fraud ferreted out and destroyed wherever it rears its ugly head, the GOP was dealt a setback in the current trial in Washington state where GOP sore losers are attempting to unseat Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire after a razor-thin margin last November. The Judge in the case has ruled --- to the chagrin of the crybaby GOP conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hat wearers --- that fraud is not at issue in the current case.

Nonetheless, beyond that, two things strike us of interest in this case.

1) The unmitigated determination displayed by the GOP to fight for the accurate counting and accounting of every vote. We only wish the DNC showed as much moxie in fighting for what was likely theirs (the Presidency). And...

The county's records show at least 875 more absentee ballots were counted than voters were credited with casting, [GOP Attorney] Foreman said. But while many precincts reported more ballots than voters, others reported more voters than ballots.

Those discrepancies should have been distributed randomly among the candidates, but two of the three most strongly pro-Rossi precincts lost votes, while the two most strongly pro-Gregoire precincts gained votes, Foreman said.

The GOP will establish in the trial how that pattern defies probability, Foreman said.

"The evidence will show partisan bias," he said. "And partisan bias is a very politically correct way of saying, 'Somebody stuffed the ballot box.'"

Sound familiar?

Of course, if that attempted legal argument was employed in Ohio and the other swing states, all of which went to Bush despite astronomically impossible statistical odds against it, the GOP's illegitimate "President" would not currently be occupying the White House.

Too bad Democrats don't fight for what's rightfully theirs as ardently as Republicans do. And, unlike Republicans, they wouldn't even have to lie and make stuff up to do it! Merely showing up for the game would likely suffice!

In the meantime, Conyers' office issued his opening statement this morning via a Press Release. He decried the current assault on the Mainstream Media, their lack of willingness to report stories critical of the Administration in power, posited how different things would be if it was the Clinton administration who had lied the world into war, and cited The BRAD BLOG, DailyKos, RAW STORY and Air America as alternative media sources in the "forefront" of those "willing to speak truth to power".

He went on to say, that "these voices are too few and too diffuse to overcome the blatant biases of our cable channels and the negligence and neglect of our major newspapers."

As we previously reported, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee has made the testimony of all witnesses from last week's hearings on the U.N. Oil-for-Food "scandal" available on their website.

All witnesses, that is, except for the stunning testimony given by British MP George Galloway, who tore Senator Norm Coleman (and the Bush Administration in general) a new one for their McCarthy-like witch hunt to distract from the Administration's devastatingly failed and dishonest Iraq policy. Galloway called the hearings and the trumped-up scandal "the mother of all smoke-screens".

As we reported originally, Coleman's office passed the buck for the absense of Galloway's testimony on the website by telling The BRAD BLOG that, "Senator Coleman is the chairman, but the committee makes their own decisions about what goes on the website."

Our calls to "the committee" have yet to be returned, yet the website has now been updated at least twice with pathetic explanations.

The first update, just after our original article on the missing Galloway testimony, informed us that: "Mr Galloway did not submit a statement".

A later update, currently available on the site, explains that (emphasis ours): "Mr Galloway did not submit a written statement".

Norm Coleman's office can be reached at 202-224-5641 if you have any questions or wish to leave a message for "the committee" since there is no phone number online for "the committee". Hopefully the chairman of that "committee" can help you.

And speaking of the future of the Freedom of the Press, last Saturday night's BRAD SHOW on the Air! broadcast is now available for your archival listening pleasure! Including the complete interviews with HBO/NBC's Jim Lampley, Editor & Publisher's Dave Astor, USMC 1st Lt. Andrew Borene, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and much much more! The archives are here as always...

The story, by WaPo staff writer Walter Pincus, details the doubts of the administration's own intelligence analysts concerning WMD, Munitions Plants and Saddam Hussein's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles program, all of which were widely trumpeted as justifications for going to war by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and others within the administration during the build-up to the War on Iraq.

Pincus' Page 1 item, which originally ran in Saturday afternoon editions of the Sunday paper and on the front page of the WaPo website was headlined "More Evidence of Bush Aide's Doubts on Iraq --- Analysts Questioned Most Intelligence".

By Sunday, however, the article had been pushed back to page 26 with the softer headline, "Prewar Findings Worried Analysts".

The Washington Post has come under fire lately by critics decrying the lack of news coverage critical to the Bush Administraton. It was nearly two weeks before WaPo even mentioned the appearance of the "Downing Street Memo" which some have cited as a "smoking gun" demonstrating that George W. Bush lied to the American People and Congress during the build-up to war in Iraq. Several sources have called the information included in the memo as evidence of "an impeachable offense".

That memo, written in July 2002 --- a full eight months before going to war --- describes the Administration as already having decided to topple Hussein through military means and that the intelligence was being "fixed around the policy". Several days after 89 U.S. Congressmen sent an inquiry to Bush asking about the information in the memo, WaPo finally ran their first news item to mention the memo. On page 18.

A source at the Washington Post has commented that it's not unusual for stories to move off of page 1 between the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Sunday paper. Yet the move all the way back to page 26 and the softened headline certainly raises questions.

The Page 1 version of the story, originally linked to by the Internet news site RAW STORY early Saturday evening, retained the same URL on the WaPo website as the move was made and the headline and page number changed. The bulk of the article was unchanged as the move was made, though there were a couple of minor changes made to the text with little effect on the story itself.

The BRAD BLOG has contacted both Walter Pincus and his WaPo editor, Scott Vance, for comment and/or explanation for the move. We will update this item with additional information if and when we hear back from them.

(Thanks to Emailer David Griscom for the tip on this story!)

UPDATE: Looks like our friend Jesselee over at The Stakeholder was getting a similar scent on this story last night as we were looking into it as well. He has additional information on WaPo's burying of various Pincus articles as well as an admission/apology for same by WaPo editors last summer. Despite that self-flagellation nearly a year ago, it would seem that WaPo is still in the business of going easy on the Bush Administration.

In a Page 1 Washington Post article this morning (one that seems to be staying on Page 1 versus another story from over the weekend which we will be reporting on shortly!), the parents of Pro Footbal Player turned U.S. Army Soldier, Pat Tillman, have blasted both the Army and George W. Bush for their "lies" concerning the death of their son via "friendly fire" in Afghanistan in 2004.

Some of the extraordinary details from the WaPo story which likely won't make it onto the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly programs, unless the plan to call Tillman's parents America Haters as well (wouldn't be a surprise at this point)...

Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss.

More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army's "lies" about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.

"Pat had high ideals about the country; that's why he did what he did," Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son's death. "The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting."
...
Patrick Tillman Sr., a San Jose lawyer, said he is furious about what he found in the volumes of witness statements and investigative documents the Army has given to the family. He decried what he calls a "botched homicide investigation" and blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.

"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," Patrick Tillman said. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."
...
"It makes you feel like you're losing your mind in a way," she said. "You imagine things. When you don't know the truth, certain details can be blown out of proportion. The truth may be painful, but it's the truth. You start to contrive all these scenarios that could have taken place because they just kept lying. If you feel you're being lied to, you can never put it to rest."

Patrick Tillman Sr. believes he will never get the truth, and he says he is resigned to that now. But he wants everyone in the chain of command, from Tillman's direct supervisors to the one-star general who conducted the latest investigation, to face discipline for "dishonorable acts." He also said the soldiers who killed his son have not been adequately punished.

"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore," he said. "Pat's dead, and this isn't going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has."

That their son was famous opened up the situation to problems, the Tillmans say, in part because of the devastating public relations loss his death represented for the military. Mary Tillman says the government used her son for weeks after his death, perpetuating an untrue story to capitalize on his altruism --- just as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was erupting publicly. She said she was particularly offended when President Bush offered a taped memorial message to Tillman at a Cardinals football game shortly before the presidential election last fall. She again felt as though her son was being used, something he never would have wanted.
...
"This lie was to cover their image. I think there's a lot more yet that we don't even know, or they wouldn't still be covering their tails."

"If this is what happens when someone high profile dies, I can only imagine what happens with everyone else."

The Brad Show returns this week with an excellent guest list --- and it promises to be a great show, if the mysterious Radio Gods will permit it.

Brad's guests will include: Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story on the judges at the heart of the so-called "nuclear option"Dave Astor, Senior Editor of Editor & Publisher, on the state of the mainstream mediaAndrew Borene of Operation Truth speaking about Friday's stand-down of military recruitment John Byrne of The Raw Story to share and discuss his recent interview with Senator Dick DurbinJim Lampley, HBO/NBC sportscaster and Huffington Post blogger

Listen LIVE via the Web! Saturday from 7p-11p ET (4p-8p PT)!Repeating Sunday 12noon-4p ET (9a-1p PT)Quick and easy access to LIVE listening links, archives, upcoming guests, donation links and ad info (it's not to late to advertise!)
and more via www.BradShow.com!

The stunning testimony given by British MP George Galloway before the U.S. Senate subcommittee on Investigations is apparently so hot that it seems to have "gone AWOL" from the subcommittee's website according to the British newsite VNU Network.

The BRAD BLOG can confirm that all witness testimony --- except that of Galloway's --- from last Tuesday's extraordinary hearings is available in PDF format on the subcommittee's webpage on the hearings.

At those hearings, Galloway blasted subcommittee Chairman Sen Norm Coleman's (R-MN) investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food "scandal" which Galloway referred to as "the mother of all smokescreens".

We have been unable to receive a statement from Senate spokesmen as yet as to why Galloway's testimony is now unavailable on the website.

A staffer in Coleman's office referred us to the subcommittee staff when we asked for the reasons for "the removal of the testimony". Her reply: "That's a question for the subcommittee. Senator Coleman is the chairman, but the committee makes their own decisions about what goes on the website."

We were forwarded to the subcommittee's voice mail where we left a message. If we receive a call back, we will let you know.

A screenshot just taken from the subcommittee's website showing the missing Galloway testimony is below.

UPDATE: As of 2:30pm PT, the subcommittee's webpage has now been updated to include, "Mr Galloway did not submit a statement" underneath his missing testimony.

As a Capitol Hill source familiar with such testimony emailed us moments ago: "I'd find it strange if they simply published the prepared remarks of these other people as submitted instead of transcribing them especially since nowehere does it say 'as prepared.' That might be a good question to ask them if you call back."

We have still been unable to reach anybody at the subcommittee willing to give comment on the matter as of this time.

UPDATE 5/23/05 4:40pm PT: The subcommittee has again edited their website, this time to say "Mr Galloway did not submit a written statement". We suppose they were unable to copy and paste from the widely circulated written statement posted by London Times nearly a week ago!

It's official. Just in from the folks at Conyer's office...Fighting on every front...God bless him...In the DC area next week? Go help 'em make some noise!

Better yet, write to C-SPAN today and ask them to cover this event!!! We spoke with Conyers' office earlier this morning, and they made it clear they would appreciate any help that "6 or 7" of you might be able to provide in encouraging C-SPAN to be there!

FROM THE NEWSWEEK CONTROVERSY TO THE DOWNING STREET MEMO, CONYERS HOSTS FORUM: "MEDIA BIAS AND THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Tuesday, May 24, at 1 p.m., Rep. John Conyers, Jr. and other Members will host a forum concerning the state of the freedom of the press in this country.

There are few liberties which are more precious to our citizenry or important to our democracy than a free and independent press. Unfortunately, in the present environment, the fourth estate appears reticent to cover numerous issues of genuine public import, and has frequently retreated in the face of criticism and threats from government officials.

For example, the mainstream media has largely ignored the implications of the "Downing Street Memo," which points to a secret agreement between the Bush and Blair Administration to not only go to war, but create the conditions necessary for the war. Similarly, in the wake of the Newsweek "retraction" of the Koran story, the Administration has sought to mandate that the magazine alter its coverage of our involvement in the Middle East.

Tuesday's Forum will provide a timely opportunity to assess the nature of media bias and the extent that press freedoms are at risk in the post-9/11 world.

WHAT: Forum: "Media Bias and the Future of Freedom of the Press"

PANEL:

Al Franken, the Al Franken Show on Air America Radio, author of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

Aaron Goldstein is a punk. There is no such thing as "conservative intellectualism". There is no intellect in conservatism. You can quote me. lamps

Consider it done, Lamps.

Lamps also promises more on Election 2004 in the coming week via Huffington Post. We'll let you know when that happens.

And BRAD SHOW promises (presuming we can get over the technical problems that plagued us last week!) to air the entire Jim Lampley interview on this week's Saturday show! Hope you'll join us! (And feel free to help us defray the cost!)